Testing My Wife

My Lovely Bride has always complained about how dirty the back entryway gets, and so quickly.  She loves that it is tile, at least the way it looks.  She detests how ugly the grout looks dirty.

Mind you, this is partially My Fault.  I did not seal the grout once I had put it in place.  Yes, I should have, and that would have repelled some of the dirt and made the grout last longer.  Okay, I own that.

Today when she left for work, I asked what I could do to help her out.  She gave me a list of items, of which, I am only considering one - sweep the floors.  No mopping or laundry for me.  I would not only fail miserably but then she would have to repeat my efforts.  Pass.  So sweep the floor I did.

As I swept, I took note of how dirty the grout was.  The woman has a point.  After sweeping, I got an old toothbrush, a glass of warm water, and some toothpaste.  On my hands and knees, I scrubbed the grout.  Warm water worked fine until I got to some stubborn places.  That's when I used the toothpaste as an abrasive to help get the dirt up.  I used paper towels to pick up the water and dirt.  I changed them out frequently so as not to put the dirt right back into the grout.

After the grout was clean, I wiped down the tiles.  We purposely picked out tiles that have ridges to give us traction when coming in from wet or snowy conditions outside.  So it did take some effort there to get the dirt out of the tiles as well.  All of this while still on hands and knees.

I took a picture about half-way through and then a final shot.  And here is the test - I am not going to tell her I did this.  I want to see how long it takes, if ever, for her to notice.

I left out no tell-tale signs.  All of my gear is put away and the evidence is in the trash.  She will have to take note that the grout is clean by pure powers of observation.

She will get it, eventually.  But I hazard a guess that it will take at least a week or more.  At least that's my wager.  Put your best guess in the comment section - and No Fair emailing her this information.

When, or if, she finally does notice, I'll come back and post and update.  In the meantime, here are the pictures:

This is at about the half-way mark.  You can see the edge of my toothbrush on the left.
Yes, it really was dirty and unsightly.  It's easy to see where I have been.


And this is the final product.  Cleaned up pretty nicely.
Not bad for a little toothpaste, some warm water, and lots of elbow grease.

And yes, it's at this point that I really should seal the grout.  I have no sealer handy, however, so that will have to wait.  It might mean that I do this all over again, but hey, it took about three years to do it the first time - no need to rush things...

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